Oh, Florence...

The weather's warming up, and I have been trying to take advantage of all of my remaining time in Florence - only about one month now. The time has flown by like never before - I can't believe I've been here since January. I've been planning my week long trip after school ends here. Jim is coming! So we are going to Rome, then up into Paris and London. I am so excited to see all of those places, but it does make me realize that as homesick as I can be, I really don't want to leave Italy yet. I think it's because, unlike leaving Wisconsin, Neenah, or De Pere, I don't know if or even when I'll be back. So I've been taking lots of walks along the river and in the Oltrarno district of Florence (across the river, and a little less crowded than the historical center, and just really trying to enjoy the beautiful combination of ancient architecture, modern conveniences, and spots of nature that make up beautiful Florence.

I did finally make it to Pisa and it's nearby city Lucca through a school trip last weekend. Yes, the leaning tower is still standing! That tower is so iconic, it's really fun to see. But a funny tidbit: when I first started taking pictures, the tower didn't look like it was leaning as much to me in my camera - I finally noticed that I had been leaning the camera angle, unconsciously trying to compensate for the tower! The cathedral there is beautiful also, and interesting because it was the first cathedral built in the Renaissance-y style that all of the other cathedrals (in Florence, Rome, Siena, etc...) followed. Lucca is an interesting city because it has all of it's city walls (about three miles worth) still intact. In fact you can walk along the top, or even rent bikes and ride along the thick walls.

I feel like I've been mentioning church, religion, spirituality, and God quite a bit - but let's face it, I'm in Florence (the land of the roman catholic cathedrals), Italy has a very strong religious background, and I'm also currently taking a class called Women and Religion, and an Ethics class. So I'm being exposed to many different ideas right now.

On that note, my Women and Religion class went to visit the Jewish Synagogue and museum yesterday in Florence. I've been in so many religious space since I came here, but none have them have ever felt that alien to me. I will admit that I have never been in a religious space that wasn't Christian before, so I was really excited to see the similarities and differences. But when we entered, we had to go through possible the strictest security that I have ever been through (it was literally worse than getting into an airport.) Nothing metal or electronic was even allowed inside, we had to leave it all in lockers outside the area. Then, I just wasn't used to the customs of the synagogue, it started with all of the men being required to wear the yarmulkes, and ended with the guide telling us that during services, women were not allowed to sit where we were sitting, but had to be up on the balcony. The synagogue was beautiful though, and I learned a lot about the Orthodox Jewish religion, and their women's roles (which were in my opinion, extremely limited - I'm not going to go into anymore detail here at the moment thought.) I also enjoyed the museum, particularly getting to see an old, handwritten Torah. Apparently, this is extremely unusual, because Torah's are only used during the service, and once they are damaged and cannot be read properly are either buried or locked away in a separate room. This particular museum however, did have one on display that had been damaged during the Florence Flood.

I really just want to be able to document everything about this city - I think that soon I'll have to devote one day to walking my usually routes and everyday stores and just take photos - maybe even some video with the camera. I know that if I don't have that, I will definitely regret it!

I haven't been able to sleep yet tonight, but I do have an early class tomorrow morning - so I guess it's back to bed for me! Bye everyone!